New groomed trails at Lubrecht: The grooming crew has established some new groomed trails at Lubrecht. The longest of these is the Garnet Spur which follows the Coyotee Creek road to join with the E trail. Since the road is wide and seldom has overhanging trees, the trail has good snow and is less icy than the lower trails. This trail bypasses the steepest and iciest part of the climb up the E trail. The map at this link shows the E trail and the Coyotee Creek road. (You may want to rotate the map so that it is more readable.)

There are two ways to get to this trail (besides skiing up the E trail).

Drive to the Garnet Range Road about half a mile before the Lubrecht turnoff (assuming that your coming on highway 200 from Missoula). The road is gated about ¼ mile from the entrance. Ski up the road about ¾ of a mile. (If you see mile maker 1, you've gone too far. You can drive up the road until Jan. 1, but 4-wheel drive would be advisable.) Just past a cattle guard there is a gated road to the left. This groomed road is the Garnet Spur trail. After about 3 miles of mostly gradual uphill the E trail will join on the left.

The second way to get to this trail is a new cutoff. On the road from the Lubrecht parking lot, the groomed A trail goes to the right by one of the cabins. Follow this (through a rope gate) to the junction of the A and B trails. From this junction, there is an unmarked groomed trail out a road. After about half a mile, you come to a metal gate on the road, and the groomed "trail" goes to the left and can be followed until it joins the Garnet Spur at the junction with the Garnet Range Road. Watch for the barbed wire that crosses the trail -- this could be hazardous coming back in the dark.

Your webmaster will work on using a GPS to produce a better map. Meanwhile, here is a map of the "old" trails: http://missoulanordic.org/maps/Lubrecht.jpg.